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Abstract
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Dear Editor,
Since the COVID-19 epidemic started, we have observed important changes in the patient population that have reached our Burn Unit in Turin, North West Italy. These differences are probably due to the drastic change in habits imposed by the public health's rules that place restrictions on individuals to limit spread of the virus.
Firstly, this led to an increase in the number of hours spent at home by the working population. Secondly, quality and quantity of care for chronic illnesses declined, including psychiatric diseases [1].
We retrospectively analysed epidemiologic data related to admissions in our Intensive Care Unit of the year 2019, compared to those of 2020.
The average age, M/F ratio and age distribution nearly overlap between the two years. The number of admissions has remained steady, with 51 cases in 2019 and 54 in 2020. This differs from other centres, where a sharp reduction in the number of admissions was observed [2]. However, in 2020, the percentage of average burns from TBSA was lower than the previous year (16.9% vs 23.3%) with a very similar mortality rate between the two years at around 6%. Compared to the expected mortality, estimated according to the Baux nomogram, the figure is very satisfactory (21.5% in 2019 and 17% in 2020). From an etiological point of view, flame burns are the most represented cluster in both samples (66.7% and 74% respectively), followed by contact burns, caustics, explosion, and electrocution.
The most interesting results emerge from the severe reduction in number of burns at the workplace and the reversal of the incidence of self-immolation...
Language: en |